Wringer



Patented Oct. 30, 1945 Tori-ice wnmona Nicholas L. Etten, Waterloo, Iowa Application April 2 1941,Serlal No, 390,673

. 3Claims. (01.68-249) This invention relates to clothes wringers for use on power driven domestic washing machines and is animprovement of my application Serial No. 388,024, filed'April 11, 1941. t

Such wringers are mounted. above the washing machine tub on a tube or hollow column andare' driven by a shaft through this column from a gear case mounted below the tub. The modem domestic washing machine employs a submerged agitator as the washing means and as the op timum speed of such agitators is about 50 oscillations per minute, the conventional gear mech-' anism is by a worm and gear reduction from a motorspeed of above 1725 R. P. M. or a reduction of approximately 36 to 1. The wringer drive shaft is driven from this slow speed mechanism, often directly from the worm gear, but always at a low speed, well under 100 R. P. M.

Conventional wringers are mounted for indexing around the. washer and rinse tubs and are rotated on the wringer support tube from the center line of the wringer drive shaft. The drive shaft actuates a'reversible gear head to rotate the wringer rolls and it will be appreciated that any resistance to rotation of the rolls will create a torque force to rotate the entire wrlnger on the support post from the center line of the wringer drive shaft:

With a low'speed, high torque drive, this rotating force is considerable and if the wringer is not anchored in position, it will quickly be accelerated to rotate around the support post at a speed of from 5 0 to 100 R. P. M. depending on the wringer head gearing. This condition is well recognized in the art and safety provisions have been made to force the operator to put the gear head into neutral position before the wringer can be imlocked from the fixed index position. i

The particular object of the invention is to provide a wringer drive mechanism wherein the drive shaft torque to the wringer may be reduced to a point wherethe torque force on the wringer about the wringer column is reduced to a, small interference from heavy torque forces from the wringer drive shaft.

on the section lines 2-2, Fig. 1, and

Other objects and benefits will be disclosedin the following description and drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a broken front elevationalview partly in section to disclose the interior arrangement of theparts.

Fig. 2 is abrokentop sectional view ofthere duction gears and indexing flange as they appear Fig. 3 is a; broken elevational view of an op-' tional motor drive, as will later be explained.

Now referring to the drawing, and at the outset to Fig. l, I designate the lower frame housing the wringer and gear head complete by them!- meral i0, and the upper frame by the number ii. Conventional wringer rolls l2 and I3 are mount-j ed in conventional bearings in the lower frame as A shown. The inner end of the top frame is mounted on the lower frame by a stationaryst ab clip II', and the outer end ofthe upper frame is mounted on the lower frameby a pressure reset lever i4 and the toggle .link 15, thereset lever being pivotally mounted onthe upper frame II by by moving the reset lever ll outwardly untilthe toggle pin i8 is thrown outwardly beyond the pin I! when the entire upper frame will be released by the movement of thetoggle i5. Roll pressure is provided by a conventional spring I! held in pressure sustaining position by the adjustment screw 20. r

The complete wringer is'pivotally supported on an indexing flange casting 2|, and the wringer is normally held in fixed position by the taper plunger 23, which is held in the mating notch 24 of the flangell by the spring 25 around the plunger rod 285- The plunger rod 26 is slidably mounted in bearing 21 and slot opening 28. By

this structureit will be understood that pressure applied on the frame" It or ii will tend topivot the frame [0 aroundthe pivot 33 andby'the ta perecl notch 24 force the plunger 23 outwardly against the spring 25. whereupon the rod 28 will be moved outwardly, pushing the reset lever it with it to release the toggle I! and with .it the top frame ii. g Mounted on the outer end of the frame in by the pinlilis an indexing lever 29 which bears a ainst the cross Din ll in the rod 26. By pushgear 34.

ing outwardly on the indexing lever 29 the rod 23 is first moved upwardly by the cam surface 33 in line witi'r' an opening 32 in the reset. lever ll. 'Ihe rod 28 'will then be moved outwardly to release the plunger 33 from indexing notches 24, thus permitting the wringer to be indexed in any position as-desired. It will be understood that the radii in normal position will strike the reset lever and thus effect pressure release as heretofore explained.

The completewringer is pivotally mounted on the index plate II by the drive shaft 33, as shown. The drive shaft 33 has a. crank extension 33 driving a spur gear 34 in contact with a pair of internal gears 35-35. Internal gear 35 is normally held in fixed position by the plunger extension 23' inserted in notches N around the circumference of the internal gear 35. I provide one less tooth in the internal gear 35' than in the gear 33, and by this arrangement the spur gear 34, when driven by the crank 33' advances the gear 35' one tooth for each revolution of the spur This is a well known gear reduction, and by this arrangement I provide means whereby the speed of rotation of the gear 35 is reduced by practically the number of teeth in the gear. For instance, if .there are 35 teeth in this gear, the reduction will be at the rate of 35 to 1. It willalso be understood that. this gear reduction and rotation of the gear 35' is only effected when the gear 33 is held in fixed position. When released by the plunger 23 being withdrawn from the notches N, all drive to the gear 35' is stopped and thus-drive to the rolls is stopped to provide an effective roll stop mechanism. It will therefore be understood and appreciated that when the plunger 23 is forced out of the notch 24, the pressure on the rolls will be released and rotation of the rolls stopped.

It will be understood that when the rolls become jammed by thick material the rotation of the shaft 33 will cause the gear 35 to be forcefully twisted to force the pin 23' to the right and out of engagement with the notches N, which will stop rotation of the rolls. The roll pressure may then be released by a slight push on the wringer to further force the rod 26'to'the right where it will force the toggle lever I4 outwardly beyond locked center position and thus release roll pressure. Neither of these movements is sufficient to withdraw the plunger 23 from the index notches 24, but this result may be had by further pivoting the wringer manuallyor by actuating the index lever 28. In interpreting the above lines, it will be appreciated that when operator is feeding clothes, he stands on the front feed or feeding side of the wringer and the torque of the wringer" is exerted to rotate the wringer away from him regardless of which side. he is feeding from. Therefore, regardless of which side the operator is standing on the roll pressure ma be released by a slight push on the wringer.

A gear head drive shaft 31 is fixed to the internalgear 35' by the flange 3.1 as shown. Rotatably mounted on the shaft 31 are the'spur gears 38 and 0, driving the face gear 43 operatively connected with the lower roll l3, as is well understoodin the art. Interposed between gears 36 and 40 is aciutch 38 spline mounted on the spline 33 as shown. The spline section 39 is larger in diameter than the section 31 and thus the gears 33 and 30 are held in fixed position by the help of the" cross pin 40'. Internal gear sections "-43 arein the face of the clutch 38, which fit spur gears 36 and 40. It will be understood that when the clutch 38 is shifted one way or the other, these internal gears "-42 slide over the teeth in the gears 38 or 48 and thus provide a driving connection to these gears. A reversing handle M with an eccentric pin 45 provides means whereby the operator may shift theclutch 38 in either direction to give forward or reverse rotation to the rolls or to stop rotation of the rolls in neutral position as shown in the drawing.

In the foregoing description I have assumed that the drive is from the gear case mounted below the tub with a drive connection to the drive shaft 33. It will be understood that in order to reduce torque on a wringer this drive shaft should be driven at high speed. However, if for any reason such a high speed driving arrangement cannot conveniently be made from the gear case, it is possible to provide a separate motor drive as shown in Fig. 3.- Herethe motor M is provided with an indexing flange plate 2| and by a similar crank drive arrangement the gear 3i may be directly driven by the motor. Inasmuch as my reduced speed mechanism will provide proper reduction of speed, it is. easily possible to drive the wringer "directly from the motor as shown in Fig. 3.

I claim:

1. In a power driven wringer for domestic washing machines, a frame, means to pivotally support the frame on the axial center line of' a support post, a wringer drive shaft in the center of said supporting means, a pair of co-acting pressure rolls mounted in the frame, a reversible gear head for driving the rolls, speed reduction mechanism interposed between the drive shaft and the gear head whereby the drive shaft may be rotated at high speed to reduce the torque force acting to rotate the wringer about its pivotal support, said speed reduction mechanism having one element thereof provided with a plurality of recesses, and lock means adapted to cooperate .with said recesses in said one element of the speed reduction mechanism to position the wringer on the support post and to permit normal operation of the wringer, said lock means being releasable by pivotal movement of the wringer relative to said support post.

2. In a power driven wringer for domestic washing machines, a frame, means to pivotally support the frame on'the axial center line of a support post, said support post having a notched member, a wringer drive shaft in the center of said supporting means, a pair of co-acting pressure rolls mounted in the frame, a reversible gear head for driving the rolls, speed reduction mechanism interposed between the drive shaft and the gear head whereby the drive shaft may be rotated'at high speed to reduce the torque force acting to rotate the wringer about its pivotal support, said speed reduction mechanism having a recessed element, and safety mechanism cooperating with the notches in said support post and the recesses in said element of the speed reduction mechanism to position the wringer on the supportpost and to permit normal operation of the wringer, said safety means being adapted to stop rotation of the rolls and to release rollpressure by pivotal movement of the wringer relative to said support post.

3. In a power wringer, a frame, a support post pivotally supporting the frame, a pair. of coacting pressure rolls in the frame, a reversible roll drive gear head rigidly mounted on the frame. gear head drive means including a high speed shaft, said roll stop meansbeing releasable by excessive torque of the drive shaft produced by Jamming of the pressure rolls to stop rotation of the rolls, and said roll pressure release mecha anism heing actuated by minor manual force to low torque sear head drive shaft connected to the release roll pressure.

NICHOLAS L. E'I'IEN. 

